Waterville Ward 2 school board member resigns

Waterville school board member Susan Reisert, right, takes part on Nov. 16, 2015, in a dismissal hearing about then-Waterville Senior High School Principal Don Reiter. Reisert has announced that she has resigning from her board seat. Also pictured, Attorney Melissa Hewey, facing away, speaks with attorney Bryan Dench. Sitting with Dench, from left, are Waterville Board of Education Chairman Sara Sylvester and member Joan Phillips-Sandy. Morning Sentinel file photo by David Leaming

WATERVILLE — The Waterville School Board is looking to fill a seat in Ward 2 because board member Susan Reisert, who is moving to Belgrade, submitted her resignation this week.

Reisert, a Democrat who has served four years on the board, said she will be departing at the end of the month as she and her husband are in the process of moving to their lake house in Belgrade.

“It’s been a great experience, a big learning experience,” Reisert said. “I was reluctant to resign, but we’ve been planning this for quite some time, that when our youngest child graduated from high school we would move to Belgrade. It’s been a lot of work and been difficult, but it’s also been incredibly rewarding and I have a lot of respect for those in the public education system.”

The board, which is made up of seven representatives from the city’s seven wards, will plan to appoint a person to fill Reisert’s seat until an election can be held, she said. Her three-year term is scheduled to expire in 2021.

During her time on the board, Reisert said, she was the only member who was a parent of a current high school student; and she said she hopes whoever follows her also will have that qualification.

“There are a lot of really good people in Ward 2, but I’m also hoping I will be replaced by someone who is a parent of at least one if not a couple of children in the system,” Reisert said. “I think it’s a really important perspective to have. I’ve expressed that to the chair and to (Superintendent Eric Haley), that I think it would be a good idea to fill the slot with a current high school parent.”